Archive for October, 2003

The Night Of A Living Dead

Tuesday, October 28th, 2003

Whole that day of August 31, 2001, I felt unusual unrest and anxiety. However without visible reason. It was usual prison day at Lefortovo: under the light of two electrical bulbs one always feels like a tortured animal. Light bulbs, the noises of radio, pale face of my cell-mate bandit Mishka, everything was at place, everyday banal process of torturing was going on. But today as in addition I felt like a heavy weight was placed on me. At first I thought that I becoming psychopat. “Edward, you are finally giving up, after those months of prison life,” - said I to myself. Then I thought that some trouble coming. Some more trouble, because I was in trouble up to the neck. It was already 5 p.m., only one hour before the end of prison working day, when prison soldier opened a feeding hole and said: “Savenko, be ready to go. Without belongings.”

“Without belongings” signified that I was summoned up inside of prison. While putting my best clothes on I thought that my lawyer Beliak came to visit me too late in the day, we will not be able to talk much. Then door opened, I stepped out. Soldiers searched me. Then I stepped to the left. “Not this way. Go other way,” said mustached soldier. It was clear then, that I am going to Investigators office and not to the lawyers’ room.

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Men without Women

Thursday, October 16th, 2003

Men without Women, it is a title of Ernest Hemingway’s collection of a short stories, most of which are somehow related to a war. First World War, if to be exact. Wars changed a lot from Hemingways time, women where awaylable at my wars which I lived and fighted in 90’s. The only territory where women are unaccessable is prison territory.

Because they are unreachable, they are hated in prison. Their names are cursed, damned, soiled, caricatured and masturbated on. Women are regarded as genetically unfaithful, polygames, unstable, compulsive liars, dirty, always ready to sex with strangers, unmoral. All women of reproductive age for a prisoner are worst than prostitutes, they are animals. Very known Russian slang word “tiolka,” was born in prison and later made its way out to the free world. “Tiolka” is a young cow, young animal. So a male prisoner treats all women as animals.

Freshly arrested, a prisoner not becoming a women hater overnight. In the first months he is tied up with a big world across the bars, he is receiving letters, once in few months he could see his wife or girl-friend through the thick glass of prison room for rendezvous. But with time those letters, smelling of perfume, more and more rare guests in his sell. Rendezvous, oh, once he is seeing blue bruises on the skin of the neck of his beloved creature. Across that dirty thick prison glass, only for a moment, but afterwords, he remembers blue bruises, powdered of course, because she is not a silly one, his beloved female. Those bruises, a prisoner knows are traces of some man kisses, left on the body of his wife! Not, not that, he is training himself to believe that he didn’t see bruises, or they are left not by kisses. At next rendezvous, prisoner wants to start a conversation about origin of those blue bruises, “you know, honey, you are, seems to me, are…unfaithful to me?”

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Holiday Of Immortality

Wednesday, October 8th, 2003

I wrote this article in Lefortovo prison. It turned out to be a creative mission instead of a serious time in jail. But Lefortovo is such a prison that even less than 3 weeks here is enough to become imbued with proud cosciousness of a Russian State prisoner. One does not simply write in there but prophecy. As it is now customary, I`d like to thank my fellow inmates Denis and Arsen who kept “creative” silence and also the prison guards who gave me a pen and a paper as soon as I requested.

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Lituatian transit

Thursday, October 2nd, 2003

Nazbols have occupied carriage of "Moscow-Kaliningrad train"September 14, 10 a.m. I’am alerted by telephone call from Party headquarters. Our boys have occupied carriage of “Moscow-Kaliningrad train” - said voice.”They just called by mobile-phone from that carriage. From lituanian rail-way station Kena, on the border.”

“Who they are?” asked I.

“Collected team from Moscow, Saint-Petersbourgh, Omsk, Nijni Novgorod, Briansk, Tula and Orenbourgh, also Tcheboksari. Sixteen camarades. They have chained themselves to a metal frames of carriage, then they teared to pieces lituanian transit visas. ‘We are going from Russia to Russia. We don’t need visas,’ – they said to lituanian frontier guards. They also blocked the locks by injecting a glue in them.”‘About the same time participants of action giving an interviews to radio “Eco of Moscow”. (more…)